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The pledge is an obstacle because of the perversions it creates in the dealmaking process given the competing dynamics of each party. Let's compare a deal that cuts three dollars of spending for every dollar of revenue increases (roughly the Bowles-Simpson commission approach) with one that just cuts the same net amount of spending. The pledge caused at least one Republican on the commission to vote no on the commission's report, thus leaving it short of the approval number that would have sent the package to the full Congress.

Likewise, Democrats are genetically-driven to increase taxes on the rich (albeit with a bizarrely-expansive definition of rich and a damaging fixation on the top marginal tax rate), and they have a point in arguing that the Bush tax cuts, combined with the preceding tax code, allow many of the wealthy to pay much lower effective tax rates than the cohorts below them. As with many Republicans on tax increases, many Democrats will launch a hunger strike over this inequity (and I might even join them). The pledge ensures they both will starve while the economy and budget go to rot.

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